RBA agrees $37m deal for head office data centre replacement

Reserve Bank of Australia will take colocation space in a CDC Data Centres' facility as the replacement for its current head office data centre under a $37 million deal.

Australia’s central bank unveiled plans at the end of last year to replace and decommission its head office data centre in Sydney and instead “establish a new co-location data centre”.

It also said it would upgrade core infrastructure used to host and support its application workloads.

The work came under what RBA was calling the Core Infrastructure Modernisation or CIM program.

The program has since been rebranded internally to CoreMod - the core infrastructure modernisation program.

“The scope of CoreMod is to ensure the infrastructure supporting our critical applications is refreshed according to its planned lifecycle,” an RBA spokesperson told iTnews.

“The program allows the bank to replace and decommission the current head office data centre, addressing risks arising from the 65 Martin Place reconstruction.”

That is a reference to the $850 million refurbishment of the RBA’s headquarters.

Staff and operations are being run out of a nearby site while the work is underway.

Earlier this month, CDC Data Centres won the rights to provide the colocation data centre for RBA for a bit over $37 million; the agreement runs until March 2034.

The bank declined to say how much floor or rack space it took, but said it now needed assistance to stand up infrastructure in the space.

“Now that we have selected the new colocation data centre facility, the program is aiming to design and establish the colocation data centre in preparation for application migration activities,” the bank’s spokesperson said.

“Through the remainder of FY 2024, our focus will be on selecting a solution partner to assist with the infrastructure design and build.”

The spokesperson said the new space will house “new future-proof IT infrastructure”. Some of that appears to be Cisco gear, sourced via NTT Australia, though it's understood that multiple vendors are supplying hardware and services.

“We are currently in the design phase to ensure the data centre is designed, fitted out, and ready to receive and commission our upgraded core infrastructure such as hardware and network services,” the RBA spokesperson said.

“There are a number of procurements made under existing agreements and this tender which contribute to CoreMod outcomes.”